Persona Of The Leadership

My grandson had a recreational league soccer game and of course I was there to watch.

Now this game was in mid April and it was unseasonably cold and damp, in fact in the early morning hours right before the game there was snow. Normal temperatures should have been in the sixties but this day it didn’t make it out of the forties.

I decided to watch the first half of the game from the warm confines of my truck. I did get out and walk over to the field to take in the second half of the game. There was a paved walking path around the field. It was cold and the grass was wet from the earlier snow. Since all I had on my feet were my cheap sneakers, I decided to stand on the pavement near the goal and the opponent’s side of the field.

From my vantage point I could hear the opposition’s coaches. Their demeanor was arrogant and rude.

As I watched the kids (ten to eleven years old) out on the field I could see them acting in the same manner as the coaches. And after the game the comments I heard from my grandson’s teammates about what the players were saying and doing was in line with the behavior of the coaching staff.

I thought the team took on the persona of the coaching staff.

Now these were ten and eleven year old boys who are very impressionable, but I also thought this translates to adults. So I wrote this note to myself: “The organization takes on the persona of the leadership.”

It’s quite simple and obvious but quite true.

When your leaders take pride in what they do, when they want to do it right and do it to the best of their abilities, it flows down through the organization.

Those who don’t care about their work and how they treat others are soon gone and usually not through firing. They realize how outside the organization their attitude is and move on to some other organization.

When the leadership in the organization stops caring about their performance, feels privileged and above others, feels there is work they shouldn’t be doing and generally give little attention to the organization, the whole organization does likewise.

Workers just stop caring.

Ask them why and you’ll get the same answer: “The leadership doesn’t care so why should I.”

And they are exactly right and justified in this assessment. If those with a major stake in the organization don’t care or appear not to care how can you expect the person who sees no future in your organization to care.